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BABY SIGN

(Signing for a book/story)

What is Baby Signing?Baby Signing is communicating with your child using physical gestures before their verbal communication has developed. Babies are able to use these non-verbal signs to give us an insight into their world and communicate their thoughts and needs with us.What are the benefits of Baby Signing?Baby signing provides a way to communicate before your baby is able to use words. In doing so, it has been shown to reduce frustration and tantrums and has a knock-on positive effect on your baby's self confidence and self esteem. Signing stimulates your baby's linguistic and intellectual development and provides both parents and babies with a really rewarding first experience of communication.Will signing delay my baby learning to speak?Not at all, in fact research suggests the opposite. Your baby's natural desire is to communicate with you. Signing does NOT and should not replace speech, each time you sign with your baby you reinforce the sign by using the word as well. Your baby copies you and in doing so develops speech.One study concluded that using baby signing improves language and cognitive ability which did not end when babies started to talk. It has been shown that children who signed as babies have 50 more spoken words in their vocabularies by the age of 2 than children who didn't sign. When should I start to sign with my baby?We welcome babies from newborn because the sooner you start the better! This will make signing a natural part of your every day communication and get you comfortable and competent in using the everyday signs. We notice babies are usually around 6-9 months when they make their first attempts although of course it does vary from child to child. Babies will show an understanding of a sign before they can produce the sign themselves. When they first start signing you will quickly be able to introduce more signs and as they get older the rate at which they learn accelerates. Even toddlers who have started to talk can still benefit from signing as it will help to build their vocabulary further.Is signing hard, will I be able to do it?Yes you will be able to do it. Baby Signing is easy and at Hullabaloo Kids, we focus on helping you learn useful everyday signs. Classes are designed to show you how to show you how to sign in a fun and relaxed way.

There
will be other parents there too, all with this shared interest and
practicing together. We use a variety of enjoyable methods to help
learn the signs including music, songs, nursery rhymes, books and
play. Babies love it! If you still have any doubts think about how a
child waves goodbye – they didn’t instinctively know how to do
this, they LEARNED how to do it from others who waved every time they
said goodbye. Babies automatically use gestures and this is the basis
on which we learn a range of signs.